Drawing Hearts in the Sand (SandmanxOCxPitch)
by Hurricane for Hours
Summary: Pendulum "Penny" Turner was the first. She was there before any of the guardians appeared. She kept time for millenia, recording the past and protecting the future. Sandman was her best friend. Now he and the guardians need her help to bring down Pitch (again) but it won't be that easy. Dark secrets and old friendships don't stay buried for long...when they surface, so does chaos.
1. Prologue

**A/N: Okay, I know there are some of you giving this a "what in the world?" look. But hey, if there will be love stories on a tall, mildly attractive Australian rabbit, there will definitely be one on my Sandy. He need some love too guys!**

**I do hope you'll enjoy!**

They were everywhere. Everywhere as in worldwide, coating the lush planet like a giant spider web. They constantly had you within their reach, never too far away. The slightest twitch of your nose in your sleep was enough to send one twanging. The air was always thick with them, thrumming in unison, taut as trip wires. It was this sort of cluttered beauty that characterized Earth. How awful it was that everyone was totally oblivious to the amazing fantastical strands around them.

At least, so thought the figure atop the Kremlin.

He leaned casually against the highest spire, where the swirling glass bubble came to a close. With a disinterested look, he scanned the square full of people, tourists and native Russians alike, wading through the threads of time without even realizing. They would all fear him yet. It hadn't worked out so well last time, but this time it would be different. This time, he wouldn't be alone.

He turned his gaze to the silvery tendril twined around the spire. Mockingly, he clucked his tongue. "Penny, dearest, look how careless you've become, letting the threads just roam free like this. Don't you realize someone could just… use them?"

Forcefully, he yanked the line away. A wicked sneer split his face as he found his hunch to be true: the thread was made of tightly packed silver sand. With a simple flick of his wrist, a line of black spiraled along it, like poison coursing in a vein.

"I'm so glad you still help out your old friends, Penny dear," Pitch cackled, swinging on the infected line into the awaiting portal to a destination unknown.

**Okay yeah… that was really short… but it's only a prologue. The chapters shall be lots longer.**

**Feel free to review if you'd like! I don't bite!**

…**Hard.**


	2. Chapter One--Darkness Returns

**Hooray! Finally, Chapter One! How exciting!**

North's workshop was alive with frantic activity. Naturally, there was the making of toys, the toys that would wait patiently for the placid night in December when they would bring delight and wonder to millions of children around the world. Tending to them were the large, intimidating yetis who, despite public belief, were the hard workers who made the gifts in the first place. What of the elves, then? They were up to their usual mischief, the jingling scamps, toddling about, looking for trouble. In the middle of the hectic building was the huge globe, which pictured all seven continents and thousands of tiny flickering lights, symbolizing each child who believed.

And, besides all this, North had company. Very flustered company.

"There better be a good explanation for this," Bunnymund grumbled, hopping out of his tunnel.

"Yes! I hope there is!" Tooth flitted about nervously, followed by a swarm of her fairies. "Tonight's a busy night—oh, all those little teeth! I hope we can get them in time…"

Sandy floated in next. He threw his arms up, indicating an unspoken question along the lines of, _yeah, what gives?_

"I do not know what you so mad at me for," North boomed in his thick Russian voice, taking a step forward. "I did not call meeting."

An explosion of confusion erupted from the three guardians before him.

"What—?"

"But the lights! I—"

"Sorry guys, that was me," the fifth and newest guardian said, stepping out of the shadows. "I threw the switch."

Tooth and her fairies exhaled a lovestruck sigh, which earned them an eyeroll from Bunnymund. "Jack!"

"Jack Frost," North announced. "You break into my workshop, assemble guardians without consent and interrupt Christmas preparation. Give me good reason not to give you Russian smackdown."

"You'd had to have known it was coming. Didn't feel it in your belly?" Jack, in all his icy glory, leaned on his crooked staff. "Besides, I've been concerned about a couple things lately."

"Well, there's a first," Bunnymund muttered. Sandy prodded him irritably.

"Have you guys noticed it's staying dark longer?" Jack asked, ignoring his "old friend".

North folded his arms. "Daylight Savings, Jack. Happens each year."

The guardian of fun began to pace. "I wasn't born yesterday. It's been darker than it's ever been out there. And, sometimes, I hear… laughing. But there's no one there."

All five of them exchanged worried looks.

"I thought I was the only one… I thought maybe I was crazy," Tooth finally whimpered.

Solemn nods came from the remaining three guardians.

"That cackle… crikey. I know I've heard it somewhere before… does this mean…?" Bunnymund trailed off.

"Pitch," North whispered, nearly inaudibly.

Golden flecks boiled off of Sandy and amassed on the ground. His hatred for Pitch knew no grounds. The imagination of each sleeping child was reflected in the dream sand he cast each night. With one touch, Pitch struck fear into them instead, turning the lovely dreams into awful nightmares not even the strong-willed could withstand. It was unforgivable.

Agitated, Tooth fluttered closer to Jack. "It could easily be nothing. I mean, we haven't seen any nightmares yet, right? Much less the Boogeyman himself."

Jack turned to her. "Even so, I'd rather deal with this when he's weak. Last time, he was so strong he almost won, remember?"

"True enough…" Bunnymund said, shuddering at the thought of the cute, pitiful creature he'd become after their last battle with Pitch.

"But how'll we know where to start?" Tooth asked.

There was a sudden jingling that made the guardians start. They looked over to see poor Sandy, angrier than a hornet, shaking one of the poor elves he had clutched in a tiny yellow hand. With the other, he pointed upwards to a nearby skylight.

"Ah! Man in Moon!" North exclaimed, following the path of Sandy's finger. "Why didn't you say something earlier, Sandy?"

He only faceplamed.

"Man in Moon!" North called up to the sky. "What news you bring to us?"

A shaft of moonlight illuminated a patch of the floor like a spotlight. Shadows inside it contorted until a familiar silhouette appeared: Pitch.

"It _is_ him!" Tooth gasped.

The shadows scattered and began to move again. This time they rearranged into a mushroom-shaped tower, very tall with a broad, sweeping top. Next, they morphed into something circular… a clock, complete with two different-length hands and a set of Roman numerals along the edge.

Sandy lit up like the sun. He began to jump excitedly in midair. He knew exactly who the Man in the Moon was talking about, and just where to find her!

"Woah, Sandy," Jack chuckled. "Don't get too excited, now."

"I think he knows where we're headin'," Bunnymund said.

"Then lead us there, Sandy!" North clapped his hands together. "To the sleigh!"

**Well, they're off! So begins this adventure. Next time we get to meet Penny herself. Stay tuned!**

**Did you like it? Did you not? Reviews are wonderful either way! I'd like to know how I'm doing! (This is my first story after all…)**


	3. Chapter Two--Somewhere in the Pacific

For eons, Penny's schedule has never changed. Perhaps the way she does things has, but the same tasks she's performed over the millennia have stayed constant. Like a line, traveling forever in one direction, never straying… except that is where the metaphor can't apply. Unexpected tangents have intersected her path at certain points in time, in the forms of two very special people. She still waits for one of them to return, although which one, she is no longer sure of. She just grows weary of being alone.

Four hundred years ago was the last time she saw anyone from the outside world. Since then, she has done her job, alone on her little island in the Pacific. That's all she ever does. It's all she can do.

Penny scurried around inside her tower. The one room at the top was enormous, sweeping around the pillar with a radius hundreds of feet long. It gave her beloved Clock Tower the look of a deformed mushroom. Its ever-so-slight lean to the northeast only added to the feel.

Inside her one room was nothing but computers. It looked like the inside of an alien spacecraft. Every wall was covered in touchscreens. Honorable yet failed contributions to technology, all invented by Penny herself, were piled by the door, awaiting the day they'd be tinkered with. Her current projects, including a matter converter that could rearrange matter into whatever the user pleased, cluttered the center of the room. And everywhere, there were clocks. Hanging from the ceiling, built into the flooring… even the screensaver for her unused computers was ticking away like a bomb.

Currently, she was frantically tapping at the pop-ups on her touchscreen walls. "Mr. and Mrs. Kalimango's twenty-second anniversary… oh, and little Giovanni is four today. All right, that should wrap up this time zone…"

Something made her look up from her work. Her door… there'd been a noise at her door. After so long, it took her a moment to register what it was.

A knock.

She sprinted for the door, agile as a cat pursuing its prey, and threw it open. Behind it she found the person she'd been waiting for, and realized it was him all along. Never mind the other man who haunted her thoughts. That's just what he was—haunting and frightening. She refused to live in fear for the rest of time. She wanted to live with—

"Sandy!" Penny fell to her knees to meet his golden gaze with her own sea-blue eyes. Oh, how she'd missed him. She couldn't wait to catch up with him, make him tell her about all his adventures over the past four centuries. She could whip up some coconut milk and convince him to stay. Maybe they could watch the stars together a bit before his job began. Maybe she could finally—

She recoiled the hands she had outstretched towards him. In an instant she stiffened, stood up and brushed herself off. Because behind the one she loved most was Santa Claus, the Easter Bunny, the Tooth Fairy, and Jack Frost.

"Guardian business," she stated, masking her pain. After all this time, he couldn't visit her willingly. She, his oldest friend, forgotten, thrown away with the trash.

Nodding, Sandy looked to the ground, wearing an expression full of shame.

Penny whirled away from the door, briskly returning to her monitors. "Well, come in if you like," she threw curtly over her shoulder.

The guardians flooded into the room, gaping in awe. "Impressive!" North bellowed.

She ignored him. "What can I do for you?"

Jack stepped forward. "The Man in the Moon told us you could help us out. You see—"

"PITCH IS BACK!" Tooth cried, flying in dizzying circles.

Disinterested in the fairy's dramatics, Penny turned back to the screen before her, tapping at the pop-ups. "So he is," she murmured.

"Wait a bloody minute," Bunnymund cut in. "You mean to say you knew this all along?"

Sighing, she strode over to a long cord hanging from the ceiling and yanked on it. A skylight opened, and several lengths of rope tumbled down from it. "Follow me."

With practiced ease, she clambered up the rope to the roof on the precariously northeast-leaning tower. The guardians followed her lead with the grace of an elephant.

"I'm about to show you something you can't normally see," Penny hollered over the wind that tore past them. It ruffled the short, flat strands of her dark auburn hair over her ears and threatened to pull off her ridiculously large steampunk goggles. "Well, Sandy can see them, but the rest of you can't. Just be prepared."

"What did she say?" North shouted the question to Sandy, but the little man only formed a golden question mark and a crossed-out ear.

Penny trekked up to the spire at the peak of the roof. Arching her back, she drew a hand slowly through the air, as if she was plucking lots of little strings. Which she was.

The guardians gasped as the threads of time appeared, one by one. There had to be billions, wrapped like the silvery spokes of a wheel around the spire. A giant spider's web, stretching as far as the eye could see.

Penny bent to pick up one thread in particular. She motioned to the guardians, and they came to her side. The line was blackened with veins of nightmare sand, twisted with her silver sand like a sickly candy cane. "Pitch used one of my threads."

"Used it for what?" Jack Frost asked, fighting to stay balanced.

"Time travel. What else?" Penny used her fingers to cut the poisoned thread from her web. She strode back over to the skylight and descended into the safety of the tower's room, the guardians following suit.

Tooth began to speak, her voice high-pitched and full of confusion. "Wait… you can travel through time with those… things?"

"What are those thread things anyways?" Bunnymund began with the questions too.

"Why have I not seen them before?" North chimed in.

"That's not important," Penny snapped. "What's important is we know Pitch is currently traveling through time, and that isn't a good thing."

At the sight of the guardian's expressions, especially Sandy's, she realized how awful her tone was. She turned away from them awkwardly, making her way to the next computer. "I'm sorry. It's just… I'm in a bad mood today."

While that was the truth, she left out the why. The part where she ached, like there was a black hole in her chest, sucking her in. She ached because she'd been replaced by these idiot guardians in Sandy's life. Jealousy wasn't beyond her, and now it had an iron grip on every fiber of her being.

Penny felt a gentle, feather-light hand on her shoulder. She looked up to see Tooth. "It's all right. We'll help you out however we can."

Penny wanted to brush her hand away. She'd recorded every minute, every moment, and every action of every person for thousands of years. All by herself. She needed no help. Yet, she found herself nodding. "Yeah. Thank you."

Tooth smiled cheerfully. "You're quite welcome!"

Penny turned to face the guardians once more. "I think I know where he's going. If we leave now, we might make it in time."

"Then what do we wait for?" North questioned. "To the sleigh!"

"Not so fast," she called out to him. "We're talking about time travel. Last I checked, no reindeer can plow through the space-time continuum. It's my way or the highway."

"I'm gettin' sick already…" Bunnymund mumbled.

"Sandy." Penny beckoned to him, and he drifted over. "I… I need you to stay here. Hold down the fort."

When his face twisted with disappointment, she backpedaled a bit. "I-I mean… I'm just worried Pitch will come here. We can't be sure what he's planning. If he attacks Clock Tower, it could be catastrophic. I'll leave Jack with you, how about that?"

She felt relief swoop over her when he perked up at that. He pounded a tiny yellow fist against his other palm several times.

"Perfect, thanks! I knew I could trust you," she said, watching him float off to tell Jack the good news.

As the three other guardians crowded around her, she ran over her newly hatched plan in her head. More than anything, she hoped it would work, for now she'd began to feel that living in fear would be better than living with heartbreak.

**I would just like to say a huge gigantic mile-wide thank you to you, the readers and reviewers! You are my reason for living! *happy dance***

**Brownie points to anyone who can guess where specifically Penny's island is! And why! :3**


	4. Chapter Three--Time to Time Travel

"I knew I wasn't gonna like this," Bunnymund groaned, clutching at the roof of Clock Tower against the wind as if his life depended upon it.

Penny towered over him. At five foot eleven, this wasn't usually the case, but while he cowered in fear of the merciless gusts (among other things), it was. She had no reason to crouch against the mere wind. Rafale* had played this tireless game with her constantly over the past several centuries, and she knew how to win. But it was a miracle someone as thinly built and frail as Penny wasn't carried off in this violent typhoon.

"I don't understand why you two are so worried. You swing on a rope made of sand into a portal. Child's play," she explained. "It's actually helpful if you do the Tarzan yell."

"I teach reindeer to plow through space-time continuum," North commented, trying but failing to hide behind Tooth.

Tooth herself only shrugged. "I don't see what's wrong with it."

Penny felt the glimmer of a smile whisk over her face. She was beginning to like Tooth.

"You can bloody fly, that's why!" Bunnymund pointed at her accusingly. Then, to North, "And you fly around the bloody world in one night, mate!"

He crossed his burly tattooed arms. "I am safe inside sleigh. No sand ropes."

"Safe? THERE'S NO BLOODY SEATBELTS!"

Penny pinched the bridge of her nose. "You've got to be kidding me."

Noticing her frustration, Tooth stepped in. "Time is of the essence, you two."

When they settled down, assuming defeat, Penny shot her a grateful nod. She then knelt and carefully chose four of the silvery threads. Each guardian caught one as she tossed them up in the air, keeping one for herself.

"On 'go', we _all_ jump, got it?" She cast her eyes over her unenthusiastic participants, with the exception of Tooth. "Three-two-one-GO!"

All four spirits leapt off the tower, clinging desperately to their lines. As the soared through the air, the two males let out surprisingly masculine screams, while Tooth was consumed by a fit of giggles. On the contrary, boredom shadowed Penny's face at this routine act.

Suddenly, they hit solid ground with loud, a collective thud. Their landing was cushioned by an unkempt patch of stringy grass and ugly wildflowers. The thick, foreboding pines stretching out as far as the eye could see blocked out every ray of sunshine (or moonlight; it was impossible to tell, the coverage was so complete). Shadows flowed in the distance like jelly bubbles inside a lava lamp.

The guardians crowded together, shaking. Tooth started biting at her nails, a habit she despised. "Th-this is—"

"1692. Salem witch trials," Penny admitted grimly, gathering the threads of time from the guardians' hands.

North studied her curiously. "What are you doing?"

Penny ignored him. Guilt had her in a chokehold, but she powered through her feelings. What she was doing was necessary. She had to know why he was doing this, but the guardians, even Sandy, could never know this secret of hers.

Sucking in a great breath, Penny knotted the three strands in her hands tightly.

The guardians stopped moving. Like time had stopped, just for them.

She quickly memorized her position, searching for landmarks. Her left foot was placed firmly between two scraggly dandelions, and she was staring directly at her hands. That was enough.

Penny instinctively dashed to the west. She knew exactly where he was. They'd danced this waltz before. Part of her yearned for it to end, after becoming so bruised at blistered. Yet another part of her hoped the tune played until the end of time.

_*Rafale is another OC of mine, a troublesome spirit of cold winds. A story featuring her is in the works!_

**Ehhhh! Shorter than I would have liked… but I have lots of other works and conflicts! Sorry! D':**

**Many thanks for the continued support of the readers. You guys are amazing! :'D *sniffle***

**As for the guessing game… I can see why you'd think Bermuda Triangle! Not the right ocean though… anyone else like to take a stab at it? Location of Penny's island and/or why!**


	5. Chapter Four--What are you planning?

**A/N: Late update is unspeakably late. Crap update is horribly crappy. Forgive me somehow! *bow***

**_EDITED_ _AS OF_****_ 4/15/13_**

_Left. Right. Right. Left. Left. _Penny was running so fast, these tree-dodging commands were the only thoughts cycling through her mind, looping like a broken record. That, coupled with a droning _"I have to find him" _in the background. Out of all the tunes over the evolution of music, which was something she had monitored closely, this was the worst track she'd ever heard. And it wasn't even the first time such deafening, choppy lyrics had plagued her while chasing so helplessly after him, and she was not proud of this fact.

Soon, the tree trunks become less frequent and the wild flora underfoot thinned. With one immense surge of speed, Penny emerged into a vast clearing. Above this patch of exposed land, the foliage yawned open to display the nearly black night sky, brightened only by a few timid stars and the full moon, looking upon her mournfully. A lone figure adorned the expanse, clad in a black robe somehow darker than the lifeless hue of the sky.

"Pitch!" Penny called out to him, struggling to catch her breath.

Pitch Black turned towards her slowly, and sneer creeping up along his face to hear that desperation in her voice. His soulless golden eyes locked onto hers, their steel gazes meeting and fitting together as naturally as matching puzzle pieces. He made his way towards her, appearing to glide over the crackling dry grass as he did so.

"Penny," he greeted her, sickeningly sweet, reaching out a hand to tuck away a stray strand of her hair. "Long time, no see, sweetheart."

She slapped his hand away, skin crawling from where it touching his discolored gray fingers. "I'm not here for a pleasure visit."

"How coincidental!" he gushed, keeping up his artficial tone. "I'm here on business, too."

"What sort of business?" Penny inched away, wary of his attitude. "What exactly are you planning?"

Pitch turned away from her, strutting proudly like a peacock through the glade. "Oh, you know, the usual. Get back at the Guardians, get the children of the world to believe in me again, reign supreme as the King of Nightmares as I did in the Dark Ages..."

"Ha!" Penny scoffed. "The Guardians will take you down. They always do."

"...But it will be different this time."

The voice came from behind her now. Penny froze as she felt his chilling breath on her neck.

"This time, I'm not looking to rule alone."

"Oh yeah?" Penny croaked. "You won't ever rule anything, except the space under that bed of yours."

Pitch strode around to face her, pouting. "What's with your attitude? I thought we were friends." He took another few steps, thinking hard. "Could it be that you're still mad about that one thing?"

"I will never forgive you for that," Penny muttered darkly.

"Why not?" Shimmering black sand whirled around him, solidifying into the form of a large horse with glowing golden eyes. "I perfected your invention. Just look at how pretty my nightmares are."

She backed away from him and the creature, holding her head as the memories flooded back.

_Penny had barely a jarful of dream sand left, after giving majority of it to Sandy. It wasn't something she'd regretted; quite the opposite, she was happy to give some of her best work to someone_ _who would use it for the good of others. She kept it at the top of the pile in the center of her one and only room._

_Even then, she was a step ahead of the humans. Clocks ticked away on every surface. Well, nearly every surface. The walls were coated in colorful maps, depicting in detail the globe and every continent on it, with veins of rushing rivers and vast, barren spaces where there were deserts. The humans hadn't even invented paper yet. They were still catching on to agriculture and beginning to shape art using their surroundings. Penny could hardly wait until she introduced paper to them. Oh, what incredulous looks would be on their faces! The humans would make such pretty things, she was sure of it._

_"Can I come in?"_

_Penny whipped around at the youthful, honeyed voice she recognized. Turning back to her maps, on which she so intently scribbled, she said, "Pitch. Come on in."_

_His footsteps clicked up behind her. "So... I see you gave that Sandman the dream sand."_

_She winced. Penny had known Pitch was after the dream sand even when she told him of it, and even then it was only a theory. She had no idea if it would even work. She only offhandly stated, "He was compatible with it."_

_"And I wasn't?" He raised his voice accusingly. "I don't remember you asking me if I wanted to try it out!"_

_Penny winced again. "I'll make another sand for you, if you really want something..."_

_"It's always him over me!" Pitch whined. "Why do you like him better?"_

_She almost said jokingly, because he doesn't talk as much as you do, but she held her tongue. Pitch was temperamental, more so because he was so young now. Mankind was taking its first baby steps, and figuratively, so was Pitch. He understood he needed to frighten people, but he couldn't be everywhere at once. He didn't know how to evenly distribute his power all over the world. Penny even theorized he didn't want this power, ugly and grotesque as it was. But at least he had a friend in her. Time would tell what he decided to do with his role, and she only hoped she could somehow influence the decision._

_"Nothing to say, huh?" Trembling, he clenched his fists at his sides. "Well... I'll show you! I'll be so much greater than the stupid Sandman!"_

_Penny turned just in time to watch Pitch snatch up the jar of dream sand in a black flurry of motion. He ran for the door._

_"Hey!" she screeched, leaping off the stool she stood on to dash after him. "Come back!"_

_But he was long gone, and were her words in the violent wind._

_He never visited her again._

_But she watched his actions closely as time passed. He fiddled with the sand in that little jar until it suited his fancy. He poisoned her greatest feat, used it for his own evil purposes._

_And it was all her fault._

"Ah! Ladies, so good to see you."

The voice of mature Pitch rang in her ears, bringing her back from the flashback. Tentatively, she blinked open an eye to absorb a sight that horrified her.

The witch trials that killed so many stemmed from a single cult. There were nine human women gifted with abilities beyond their imagination by Death himself. These powers and the display of them killed only the first seven, along with countless innocents. But there were two that survived these trials; the women that stood before Pitch now. Sister Agatha Scarlette and Maureen Miller. Their powers were they strongest, but also the most subtle, which made them prime canidates for survival. But it was their survival that brought danger to all, especially if Pitch brought them with him to present day...

"Pitch!" Penny cried, tears stinging behind her eyes. But she couldn't cry, she mustn't. It wasn't in her job description to be weak-willed.

Pitch looked over at her, regarding her with pity. "Yes, I do need their help this time around. But that's not what's so different."

He vanished from her sight, but she felt his cool breath on her ear again.

"I plan to rule this world with you."


End file.
